Letters: ‘Science cannot contradict the Bible’

I applaud the Baptist Standard for publishing the views of both sides of contemporary issues. I doubt any of the staff agree with a recent letter’s author, who takes umbrage with the Baptist General Convention of Texas statement regarding gender identification. 

That God created us male and female is timeless truth. Unambiguous. Not subject to redefinition. The author in protest cites “scientific evidences” to the contrary as the basis for asserting the reality of transsexual gender(s). 

I am not a physician. I am a man of science and a man of faith. My high school biology teacher was also a man of faith and a coach, Steve Gregg. Fifty years ago, he explained to us in private true science cannot contradict the Bible, since both have God as their author and Creator. Science that fundamentally disputes Scripture is no science. It is confusion, which is the state of so-called transsexuals. 

Gender is identifiable by the presence or absence of the Y-chromosome in the DNA. Not by psychology nor by “data.” Any assertions to the contrary are hogwash. 

By the way, “doctrine” based on Scripture that contradicts sound science is not truth but dogma. Another topic for another day.

Maurice Harding

Seadrift

Return to prayer and fasting

Excellent news coming from the Texas Woman’s University Baptist Student Ministry. 

The basic disciplines of prayer and fasting have become lost in so many of our program- and music-driven churches and ministries today. God’s presence and spiritual power will become evident in our churches when we return to prayer and fasting. 

Thank you, TWU Baptist Student Ministry, for reminding us of this all-important aspect of our discipleship.  

Tim Robinson 

Whitesboro

Science, the Bible and sex

“Gender is identifiable by the presence or absence of the Y-chromosome in the DNA. Not by psychology nor by “data.” Any assertions to the contrary are hogwash.”

I will repeat back to you the headline of this letter (above): “Science cannot contradict the Bible.” This is exactly what Maurice Harding’s statement does. Faulty pop science claims the presence or absence of the Y-chromosome determines sex (not gender, by the way). The Bible doesn’t use genetics as the sole determinant of sex; it uses the genitals. And sex follows changes to the genitals.

A woman with the complete form of Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome would be XY, female-typical external genitals, and testes in her abdomen rather than ovaries and uterus. The Bible would consider her a barren woman. Not a man, as this rule would dictate. 

Someone who is XY and born with ambiguous genitals would be considered a eunuch by the Bible. Not a man as this rule would dictate. 

Someone who is XX and born with ambiguous genitals would be considered a eunuch by the Bible. Not a woman as this rule dictates.

My karyotype is 46,XY/45,X. Some of my cells are XY; some are just X. So by this rule, I’d be part man and part woman. Yet I suppose this “science”—since it’s clearly not based on the Bible, it can’t be doctrine—only allows for male and female. 

The Bible allows for male, female, and other (eunuch). “For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb” (Matthew 19:12).

Lianne Simon

Atlanta, Ga.

Transgender: ‘Know the full story’

I was born with one testis and one ovary that later in life became malignant with ovarian cancer. While being treated at the Mayo Clinic, I encountered another person with the same condition. 

I’ve never said God made a mistake when I was born. People are born with many variations of their body structures. 

In response to Maurice Harding’s letter (above), you better start looking up intersex conditions. There are at least 30 or 40 such variations. I have two friends who are XXY and one who has AIS—androgen insensitively syndrome. In her case, she is XY with a female body structure. Her cellular structure cannot absorb androgens (testosterone), hence the female body structure. 

Your world is doing much harm to children who are born with these issues. 

Please keep in mind that many transgender people do have an intersex condition. In fact, about 1.7 percent of children have one form of intersex conditions. Most go though life and never know. 

It was common practice to do sex-change surgery to babies if their male sex organs failed to develop. In fact, the practice is still being done in many areas even today. I know of one such adult who had surgery imposed on him as a child. He almost went insane before he had surgery to change him back to male.  

Don’t present yourself as an expert unless you know the full story and the science behind all this.

David Micheletti

Cohasset, Min.